GOP Sees Colleges As Ground for Votes

[RedEarth]

NEW YORK - College campuses are stirring back to life, and Eric Hoplin's vote machine is ready to spring into action.



Hoplin, chairman of the College Republican National Committee (news - web sites), has 120,000 members, 60 field staffers and a multimillion-dollar budget directed at turning out 125,000 or more young voters for President Bush (news - web sites) in battleground states.




The group is combining old-fashioned registration drives with aggressive Election Day follow-up to ensure this traditionally low-turnout segment of the population does more than just sign up to vote. It hopes to build on a 2000 surge that significantly narrowed a once-commanding lead by Democrats among the under-30 crowd.


"We know who registered to vote. We're going to visit them on Election Day and we'll give them a ride to the polls," said Hoplin, a 26-year-old graduate of St. Olaf College in Minnesota. "We're going to call them. We're going to harass them."


The under-30 bloc is estimated at 48 million, but only about 18 million voted in 2000. Exit polls showed 48 percent of those under 30 voted Democratic and 46 percent voted Republican. In 1996, Democrats enjoyed a 19-point spread among this group.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1963&e=10&u=/ap/20040831/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_college_vote_2&sid=96378798

[9119495]

1. If republicans take the Bob Jones University campus, we're done for.

[Florida_Geek]

2. "We're going to call them. We're going to harass them."

What a way to win votes..... But for whom....